Monday, June 3, 2013

Project information

Everytime I come across a computer application that purports to be a 'project management' application, I wonder.

Rarely are they, in my view. There are scheduling applications aplenty, task managers by the ton (as if a project is just a collection of tasks!), and so on. Some scheduling applications do a good enough job with resource planning and work package cost management, even earned value management, but project management? No!

Managing a project does entail work that is aided by such applications, but the heart of it, in my view is being able to manage the continual wash of information that flows through and is demanded by a project. This information is variously in documents (a document management system is essential for all but the tiniest projects), meetings, e-mails, other correspondence, notes, conversations, and so on.

When an application claims to be a project management application, I think of products such as Prolog by Meridian, Expedition by Primavera (not sure if this vanished in the Oracle take over) and Project Administrator. I do not think of Microsoft Project, as useful as that application may be for scheduling.